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March 22, 2020

PLEASE NOTE: ALL SIERRA VISTA ROTARY MEETINGS CANCELED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 Crisis the Sierra Vista Rotary will not be meeting until further notice in order to protect the health and safety of our members, and to be in compliance with the Governor of Arizona's order canceling all public gatherings, and closing dine-in restaurants.

We encourage all of our members and community to stay safe and stay home during this time. For the most up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 in Cochise County including how to protect yourself and your family, please refer to the Cochise County Health Department website: https://covid-cochisehealth.hub.arcgis.com/

For a statement of what Rotary International is doing to combat the impacts of COVID-19 please visit https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-monitors-coronavirus-outbreak

Cowboy Poets at the Sierra Vista Rotary Club

Cowboy Poets at the Sierra Vista Rotary Club

At the weekly meeting, members and guests of the Rotary Club of Sierra Vista were pleased to have George Wheat, Co-Chair for the Cowboy Poets event, and Steve Conroy, past chair and Cowboy entertainer, provide the club with information about the upcoming Cowboy Poet event.

The Cochise Cowboy Poetry & Music Gathering theme this year– “It’s Cool to be a Cowboy,” features performances by the Grammy Winning Riders in The Sky and other award-winning western music and poetry artists. The gathering begins on Friday, February 7th at Buena High School, and runs through Saturday performances on February 8^th. On Saturday afternoon before the evening performances, the very popular Barn Dance will be held to help celebrate the Cowboy Way. Then on Sunday, February 9^th, there will be a breakfast at the High School prepared by the Culinary Arts students.

George Wheat stated this was the 28^th year of the Gathering. Each year students across Cochise County are introduced to the western way of life and poetry writing through the Western Heritage Schools Outreach Program. This year, from all the students writing poetry, there were 36 prize winners and two scholarship winners. To give the club a taste of the poems and music to expect at the Gathering, Steve Conroy offered to recite one of his favorite poems about “Purtenear Perkins.” After which, Steve took out his guitar and sang a western tune “Cheyenne.” He was prevailed upon to sing another tune and he accommodated with the Classic tune “Tumbling Tumble Weeds.” A final treat from Steve was his own poem “Grampa’s Will.” Following Steve, George Wheat provided a reading from the Saddlebag of Poems, a remarkable collection of poems written by the best of the young students from the third through twelfth grade. He chose a prize-winning submission by his daughter, Amanda Wheat, called “Hats Off to the Cowgirl.” There are Cowboy Poet tickets for sale on-line and at various places in Sierra Vista.

Before the meeting concluded, we were reminded of the Annual Relay for Life team that Barbara Culton is forming. She has asked for more volunteers to help raise funds to fight cancer. We were also reminded of the Taste of Sierra Vista event that we are having on the 7^th of March – a major fund-raising event for the Rotary this year.

Renee Romo Named Rotary Student of the Month for January

Renee Romo, senior a Buena High School, was chosen as the Sierra Vista Rotary Club's student of the month. Renee is in the Buena Key Club, National Honors Society, and serves on the Buena Student Council. Her role on council made her an integral part of organizing the recent Arizona Association of Student Councils conference at Buena. She served as emcee of the conference and while some may have felt daunted by getting up in front of a crowd of 2000 of their peers, Renee said, "AASC is a very inclusive organization, we were from all across the state but felt like a big family." She shared with the Sierra Vista Rotary Club the recent AASC conference exemplified the Rotary 4 way test. She shared, "At the conference we had to learn that our service comes before ourselves." She recieved buttons that say "I am number 2" and if asked who is number one, the answer is, "you are!"

Renee is a senior and has been accepted into the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

Rotarians in the News - Prepare to Celebrate Independence

Published in the Sierra Vista Herald on July 3, 2019 By Dana Cole

SIERRA VISTA — Independence Day is here, and with Sierra Vista’s celebration comes a list of activities at Veterans Memorial Park, followed by a spectacular fireworks display at Domingo Paiz and Stone fields. Festivities started Wednesday evening and resumed bright and early Thursday morning with a lineup of food vendors, activities, demonstrations and entertainment at Veterans Memorial Park. Wednesday afternoon found Rotarians in the park’s bandshell area setting up tables and organizing booths for food, beer, wine and beverage sales.

Rotary Club of Sierra Vista members Joe Puett and Randy Sueskind were at the park Wednesday helping with the set-up.

“Our Rotary Club was the first Rotary in Sierra Vista, founded on June 7, 1960,” said Puett, one of the club’s past presidents. “Three other Rotary Clubs spun off ours and they assist us with this event.” The other three are Sierra Vista West, Sierra Vista South and Sierra Vista Sunrise.

Sierra Vistan Les Orchekowsky awarded Rotary International’s highest honor

The Sierra Vista Rotary Club was full of honored guests on Monday, but little did unsuspecting Rotarian, business owner, and longtime Sierra Vista resident Les Orchekowsky know they were there to honor him. Orchekowsky was presented with the “Service Above Self” award from Rotary International. The award is referred to as Rotary International’s highest honor for an individual and is only given to a maximum of 150 Rotarians worldwide annually. With over 500 districts and a million members, the competition for Rotary International’s award is steep.